Critic Reviews

I’ll close with one final virtue to bestow upon Fire Shark: you can play the game forever. Once you complete all ten stages, once the credits have rolled, you play through the game again, on a harder (and I mean HARD) setting. This is really the thing that made Contra on the NES so perfect; you’d think this would be standard-issue for every console video game. You’d be wrong.

The graphics are of an extremely high standard and, for once, don't stop you from seeing the enemy's bullets coming! There are too many continues available, but that's a common problem in Megadrive arcade games, and even Truxton had infinite continues. I recommend this game very strongly to all shoot 'em up fans - you'll have a blast!

When it comes to shooters I prefer side-scrollers, but I have to admit that Fire Shark has my vote as the best in its category! Awesome weapons and incredible play, plus 99 levels to beat make this a real player's game.

Fire Shark is a turbo-charged version of the arcade game 1942. This highly regarded shooter certainly delivers in terms of sheer firepower and number of enemies. Your biplane is swarmed by dozens of enemy forces from the air, ground, and sea. Fortunately, your powerful guns are up to the task, and you also have a supply of devastating bombs. The bombs take out a large area, and you can time their detonation by holding the deploy button. There are three types of weapons, and each can be powered-up to an insane degree. Fireshark is a shooter lover's shooter. The action is fast and furious with no hint of slowdown. The graphics are a little weak, especially the desert and water backgrounds, but the animation is smooth and flicker-free. Fire Shark is a little on the easy side, mainly because the power-ups bounce around the screen until you catch them. It's cool how your plane catches fire when hit, allowing you to get off a few extra shots before going down. This one's a winner.

But my biggest niggle about Fire Shark is that many of the game elements just seem totally arbitrary. With any shoot 'em up, you don't expect the plot to hang together like an episode of Inspector Morse, but I ask you - a bi-piane kitted out with a laser cannon!? Even if you ware a time-travelling
phantom aviator (as the ludicrously guffy scenario suggests), would an antique aircraft really be your first choice of transport when faced with a heavily-armed evil empire? I think not.

Fire Shark is a fun game to play, but you will probably get burned out on it after one afternoon of action, especially if you advance far into the game. The thought of having to trudge through all of the beginning levels again is almost too much to bear. So, while Fire Shark is fun, it's not a game that you will want to play every time you hit the Arcade.

Fire Shark is the quintessential Genesis shooter that isn’t noteworthy in any way but isn’t bafflingly bad in any way, either. Not even vanilla is this plain. In a library with many excellent and exquisite vertical shooting entries, this may be one of the most unremarkable because it doesn’t offer anything beyond battling tanks and planes. But where previous images of military conquest led by a single stalwart fighter conjured moments of exhilaration, no such emotions arise here.